Officers killed in West Memphis

Bill Sadler, Public Information Officer for the Arkansas State Police, gives a timeline of the events that led to two officers being shot and killed.

Two West Memphis Police officers were killed and two other law enforcement officers, including Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby, were shot today after two suspects were pulled over on a drug interdiction stop around noon on Interstate 40 at Airport Road.

Sgt. Brandon Paudert (left) and Officer Bill Evans (right) of the West Memphis Police Department were shot to death today following a traffic stop on Interstate 40. The officers are seen in this file photo, courtesy of The Evening Times, after 13 large bricks of drugs were found on an 18-wheeler on April 8.

Mike Douglas/The Evening Times

Sheriff Dick Busby: Wounded

Deputy Chief W.A. Wren: Wounded

Officer Bill Evans: Killed

Sgt. Brandon Paudert: Killed

A suspect lies dead as police investigate the scene at the West Memphis Walmart. He is one of two men killed Thursday in a shootout that also left two top officers with the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department wounded. Earlier, the two suspects had an encounter with West Memphis police on Interstate 40, in which two officers were slain.

The bloodiest day for area law enforcement officials began with routine-sounding radio broadcasts that West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert and his wife heard from their car.

One was from their son, Sgt. Brandon Paudert, reporting that he was providing backup for a traffic stop on Interstate 40.

Moments later, however, came a chilling transmission: "Officer down."

The elder Paudert rushed to the scene to find his 39-year-old son, a seven-year veteran with the West Memphis force, lying dead on the pavement, shot in the head and neck, still gripping his service weapon.

That sequence, confirmed by a law enforcement source, ushered in 90 minutes of horror and chaos Thursday that left two West Memphis police officers dead and the two top officers with the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department wounded.

The two suspects also were killed. Authorities declined to identify them, but The Commercial Appeal talked to three people late Thursday who said they recognized their relatives and the van from photos and videos. They said one of the suspects was a 16-year-old boy and the other was his father.

Although there have been a few double-murders of officers in past decades, the toll from the separate gunbattles Thursday apparently was the greatest suffered by Memphis-area law enforcement agencies in a single day.

In addition to Paudert, West Memphis officer Bill Evans was killed and Sheriff Dick Busby and Deputy Chief W.A. Wren were wounded. Late Thursday, Busby was in stable condition at Regional Medical Center at Memphis, while Wren was upgraded from critical to serious condition.

"The men and women of the West Memphis Police Department are deeply saddened," Asst. Chief Mike Allen said Thursday afternoon, holding back tears. "When something like this occurs, we come together as a family."

The tragic day began at 11:36 a.m. on Interstate 40 when Evans radioed in that he was pulling over a white minivan with Ohio license plates near mile marker 275. The van pulled off the interstate onto an off-ramp near College Boulevard.

A few minutes later, Paudert, Evans' backup in the Criminal Interdiction Unit, arrived on the scene. Suddenly, one of the two suspects in the van wrestled Evans to the ground. Gunfire rang out toward both officers from a "long rifle" and a handgun, police said.

Somehow, and police aren't sure exactly how, a broadcast went out at 11:50 a.m.: "Officer down."

Chief Paudert, answering his phone on the scene shortly after the shooting, confirmed that his son was dead. Evans was airlifted to Regional Medical Center at Memphis, where he was was pronounced dead.

That sparked a massive manhunt by every law enforcement agency in the area, including Memphis and Shelby County, in case the subjects fled across the river.

At about 1:06 p.m., someone spotted the van in the parking lot of the West Memphis Walmart.

What happened next is still the subject of confusion, one of many things investigators with the Arkansas State Police will have to decipher.

Dozens of shots rang out, both from the two suspects and the officers, but investigators are uncertain exactly who fired.

Busby and Wren were hit, with Busby taking a shot in the shoulder and Wren taking three in the abdomen.

At that point, an unknown wildlife officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, part of the manhunt, rammed his pickup into the side of the minivan, disabling it.

"If it hadn't been for him, they'd probably have killed Wren and Busby outright," said Al Boals, a former West Memphis mayor visiting the family at The Med.

More than 30 officers swarmed the van after the shootout. The suspects' bodies were pulled out, then thrown on a grassy median and the parking lot.

A helicopter airlifted Wren to The Med, while an ambulance took Busby. Family and law-enforcement personnel quickly joined them.

Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler declined to discuss details of the investigation or provide any information about the suspects, including their identities, possible motives and what was found in the van.

"There (are) some very important pieces of information that need to be gathered," he said. "We're not certain of anything until we get the report back and evidence from the state crime laboratory."

Authorities say the van was registered to House of God's Prayer, 143 Main in New Vienna, Ohio.

The Wilmington (Ohio) News Journal quoted New Vienna Police Chief James Holcomb as saying he has not seen any activity at the storefront church.

According to the public-records firm Accurint, that same address was associated with a deceased white supremacist named Harold R. Redfeairn.

The Associated Press reported in 2003 that Redfeairn headed a chapter of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian in New Vienna. The church espouses the white-supremacist doctrine of the Aryan Nations.

Meanwhile, the street outside of the former House of God's Prayer church in New Vienna was quiet Thursday night except for the flurry of local and regional news media who descended on the village of 1,300 residents.

During the 90 minutes that the suspects were at large, West Memphis schools were locked down. Police set up roadblocks at bridges over the Mississippi River, checking vehicles for the suspects. Memphis police and Shelby County sheriff's deputies were posted at all I-40 exits.

At Walmart, the scene remained chaotic as police cordoned off the area.

Iesha Person, 19, arrived at about 1:20 p.m. to start her shift at the store. Other employees ran out the door and told her to turn around.

"I was hearing gunshots," she said. "They were telling me to turn around. So I turned my tail around."

Both Evans and the younger Paudert were part of the criminal interdiction team, which has a dangerous job of stopping cars in a city where two interstates meet.

"There are lots of drug dealers and criminal elements passing through that city," said Oakland Police Chief Rick Jewell, a former assistant chief in West Memphis. "There's a lot of drugs and a lot of money."

This makes at least the third West Memphis officer killed in the line of duty. Michael Waters, 24, was thrown from a car during a pursuit on Sept. 11, 2003. Another officer then accidentally ran over Waters as he lay on the pavement.

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin, who rushed to The Med, said, "From an emotional standpoint of all law enforcement, this breaks the heart of every agency around. I've known Chief Paudert for 36 years. It's unbelievable the hurt and pain this has caused his family."